ABSTRACT REASONING | ART AT THE BROAD INSTITUTE

Art and science both strive to understand the world around us, although through different approaches. While artists tend to explore subjective interpretation and emotional expression, scientists typically employ empirical observation and systematic investigation. An integral step to the creative process is abstract reasoning. It provides the cognitive flexibility required to move beyond the obvious and the concrete, allowing for the exploration and expression of deeper, multifaceted ideas ­— recognizing patterns, making connections, and trying to understand complex relationships. It enables us to make leaps in understanding that are not based solely on what we see.  

With a focus on form, color and line, this body of work utilizes an expressive visual vocabulary. An attention to the physical immediacy of paint combines with strong, gestural expressiveness to create fragments of an urban reality. Their genesis springboards from site specific imagery, and interprets it in a new context, transforming the source into art that conveys something the raw data may not. Each painting undergoes a history of its own, as layers are added, scraped, overpainted, built and rebuilt — the paintings evolve from depiction to a more personal, evocative terrain.

“The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt as humans to build an understanding of the universe, the world around us.” —    Mae C. Jemison, MD